Fatwa No : 87125

Places of Sajda in Qur'an

Fatwa Date : Muharram 5, 1425 / 25-2-2004

Question

Pease list the verses of Sajda in the Qur’an. An elegant scholar in our country says that there are only 4 places of Sajda verses in the Qur’an as known through authentic Hadith while I see about 15 places in most of the published Qur’an copies.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

This statement is not correct. There are a lot of Ahadith which confirm that there are more than four Sajda (Qur'an prostrations). Amr bin Al-Ass (Radiya Allahu Anhu) narrated that “The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) taught him (to read) 15 Sajda, 3 of which are in the Mufassal and 2 of which are in Surah Al-Hajj (22)”. [Reported by Abu Dawud, Al-Hakim, Ibn Majah, Daruqutni and Al-Mundiri said that 'it is a sound Hadith']

However, al-Shafi’e said that 'there is no Sajda in Surah Sad (38), and considered it as a Sajda of thankfulness'.

Maliki did not consider that there is a Sajda in Al-Najm (53), Al-Inshiqaq (84), and Al-Alaq (96) and considered them as being abrogated according to the Hadith of Ibn Abbas that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) did not prostrate when reading from the Mufassal since he immigrated to Medina. Muslim reported as well that Ata bin Yasir asked Zayd Ibn Thabit about reading while the Imam is reading, he replied: ‘There is no reading with the Imam while in Salat’. And he claimed that he read the Surah Al-Najm (53) and did not prostrate. Al-Nawawi said in interpreting Saheeh Muslim that: ‘This Madhab (Maliki’s) is weak, because it is confirmed in Saheeh Muslim from the Hadith of Abu Hurairah (Radiya Allahu Anhu) that he said: “We made Sajda with the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) in Surah Inshiqaq (84) and Iqra…(96)’”.

The scholars agreed that Abu Hurairah embraced Islam in the year 7.A.H, so he said that Sajda has to be performed when reading the Mufassal. The chain of narrations of the Hadith of Ibn Abbas (Radiya Allahu Anhu) is weak, and it is not correct to state it as an evidence’ (extracts).

Abu Hanifa and Malik did not consider the second Sajda of Hajj as being a Sajda and he said that what is meant by the Ayah is the obligatory prayer because of the mention of Ruku’ with Sujud. But the first Hadith is an answer to them both.

Another response to them as well is what is narrated by Ahmad, Abu Dawud and Tirmizi that Oqba bin Amar said: ‘The excellence of Surah Hajj is that it has two Sajdas’. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: “Yes”. ‘And whoever did not prostrate when reading them, it is as if he did not read them’.

On the above grounds, it becomes evident that the preponderant opinion is that there are 15 Sajda in Qur'an according to the aforementioned Hadith.